Patna Film Festival is back with more flare this year

Patna: The most awaited, 2nd Patna International Film Festival inaugurated on 19th February 2016 has already put the people of Patna in a celebratory mood.

The famous SK Memorial hall at Patna was overloaded with the different class of people on the inaugural day. Organized by the department of art, culture and youth affairs, a week-long film festival is on the mind of every class of people (school children, youths, and old-age).

Stars including Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, and Vidya Balan are going to be the attraction of the International Festival.

On 19th, the inaugural day the audience gave a positive response with a strong noise when Nitin Kakkad, director of ‘Ram Singh Charlie’ and actress of the movie Divya Dutta, addressed the crowd. Nitin’s statement that half of Mumbai is run by Biharis and the city cannot move an inch without them drew loud cheers from people. Inaugurating the event, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav supported the desire of the actor Shekhar Suman to produce a film on Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan. Also, he said that he wants to shoot the film in Bihar.

Speciality of Patna Film Festival 2016

Feature and non-feature films in different languages will be included.

A film based on the life of circus artists, “Ram Singh Charlie “will be exhibited.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif constrained out of office, on account of the Panama Papers

Sharif’s leave comes after a long-drawn fight in court which finished ominously for him

This raised questions about whether India’s mighty are at all prone to meet a similar destiny that Nawaz Sharif did

New Delhi, August 3, 2017: Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson of Iceland and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan are similar in ways that they cannot be proud of. Both of them are prime ministers who were constrained out of office, on account of the Panama Papers, which is an investigative news coverage activity that revealed offshore shell organizations and tax shelters in light of spilled records from Panamanian law office Mossack Fonseca.

Be that as it may, while Gunnlaugsson surrendered, not long after the Panama Papers report prompted dissents in Iceland a year ago, Sharif’s leave today arrives after a fight that was long-drawn in court which finished ominously for him.

In India as well, there is not lack of prominent names that were included in the list of Panama Papers. Indian Panama incorporates best legal counselor Harish Salve, industrialist Gautam Adani’s senior sibling Vinod Adani, and Bollywood hotshot Amitabh Bachchan. But contrasted with the speed at which Pakistan’s offices and judiciary followed up on the case of Sharif, is the pace of India on the subject of Panama Papers impressively slower?

Amitabh Bachchan was listed in Panama Papers. Wikimedia

The following is a passage from an article in Indian Express by Ritu Sarin in March 2017, one of the writers who was a part of the group exploring the Panama Papers.

“Nearly a year after The Indian Express published the Panama Papers, tax authorities have succeeded in obtaining 165 replies — partial or complete — from among 13 jurisdictions where Indian nationals had incorporated offshore companies through the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. According to data made available at the latest meeting of the Multi Agency Group (MAG) last month, the number of Indian clients of Mossack Fonseca, whose PAN numbers had been traced, has swelled to 424. Of these, 205 have accepted links to offshore entities named in the global expose. However, 60 other Indians named in the Panama Papers remain untraced.”

Sarin feels that it would be unfair to put an allegation on the Indian agencies of being relaxed in tackling the Panama Papers.
Rita Sarin added that she had hardly noticed the tax department act in such a swift manner. She compared investing offshore to the long process of peeling an onion, where you have to go layer by layer.

It is a fact that Pakistan managed to finish the Nawaz Sharif Panama case in barely a year, but what about the procedures on the prominent names of Indians displayed in the Panama Papers?

Sarin mentioned that all the individuals named in the Panama Papers, including the famous people were sent a notice. There will be a PIL in the Supreme Court. Notwithstanding when the duty dept is giving status reports to the SC. So in the event that they are not obliged to let even the SC know, there is no compulsion on them to tell us. Tax probes are exceptionally private, that is the idea of a duty examination. We will just become more acquainted with when individuals are prosecuted.

“All I can say is that each one of the people named by us were given tax notices. They must have been subsequently summoned and the case is in progress. Whenever there was a requirement or a suspicion of tax evasion, those requests were sent to the offshore jurisdictions. So that process is underway” she elaborated.

Indeed, even if the jokes proceed with it is worth asking if India’s mighty are prone to meet a similar destiny as Nawaz Sharif. Or, on the other hand, will their position and status postpone this test indefinitely?